For those disturbed by Team Trump's coziness with the Russians, how do you feel about Switzerland's relationship with Russia?

Unlike EU members, Switzerland did not impose sanctions on Russia. However, it was very kind of them to promise not to use Swiss territory to circumvent the sanctions.

Back in January, the Swiss Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann, told several newspapers that he hopes the sanctions will come to an end soon and was looking forward to discussing Russian sanctions with Trump.

Is anyone is Switzerland protesting that guy?

The non-subtle difference is that Team Trump are denying any coziness with the Russians whereas the Swiss are open about the relationship.

Do you get the difference?

Did Trump fight his election on the grounds of getting cozy with Russia and dropping sanctions?
Did the Swiss fight any election on the grounds of raising sanctions?

Thanks for this, more info from the BBC about "wire tapping" linked to Trump.

Quote:

Last April, the CIA director was shown intelligence that worried him. It was - allegedly - a tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign.

Lawyers from the National Security Division in the Department of Justice then drew up an application. They took it to the secret US court that deals with intelligence, the Fisa court, named after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. They wanted permission to intercept the electronic records from two Russian banks.

Their first application, in June, was rejected outright by the judge. They returned with a more narrowly drawn order in July and were rejected again. Finally, before a new judge, the order was granted, on 15 October, three weeks before election day.

They need warrants for UK but nothing stopping them copying phone calls in other countries and sharing the results with the US and other intelligence agencies.

That's key, imo.

NSA say they dont' listen in on US citizen's communications (any more, if one's willing to take their word as fact). Perhaps GCHQ says likewise, dunno.

AFAIK no agency ever said anything about data sharing. My take is that GCHQ share their data on US citizens with NSA and vice-versa (data on foreigners goes without saying), other nation's surveillance agencies likewise.

The more data they get the smaller and less numerous the blank spots will be.

The following 3 users would like to thank Urs Max for this useful post:

NSA say they dont' listen in on US citizen's communications (any more, if one's willing to take their word as fact). Perhaps GCHQ says likewise, dunno.

AFAIK no agency ever said anything about data sharing. My take is that GCHQ share their data on US citizens with NSA and vice-versa (data on foreigners goes without saying), other nation's surveillance agencies likewise.

The more data they get the smaller and less numerous the blank spots will be.

The only reason why the NSA-GCHQ [data] sharing relationship is still legal today is because of a last-minute clean-up effort by the government to release previously secret ‘arrangements’

Any lip readers here? This clip contains a video claimed to have been shot through the window of the Oval Office showing a "heated" meeting between Trump and some of his team, starts about 19 seconds into the clip..

One of Trump’s biggest supporters got smacked down by JK Rowling after he called a critic a ‘stupid ignorant ugly bitch’. Roger Stone, 64, has worked with the Republican party since the days of Nixon and is a longterm Trump advisor, although no longer in an official capacity.

Probably off topic but this will likely get Trump shouting Fake News.
A CNN article about "did Jesus really exist" here.

Old news (article dated 2012) rather than fake news.

But does give food for thought regarding Osiris and Jesus. Osiris was the god of the underworld and of resurrection.

"Osiris (/oʊˈsaɪrᵻs/, alternatively Ausir, Asiri or Ausar, among other spellings) was an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead, but more appropriately as the god of transition, resurrection, and regeneration."

"The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, if they incurred the costs of the assimilation rituals.[11]" (Sound familiar?)

"The cult of Osiris (who was a god chiefly of regeneration and rebirth) had a particularly strong interest in the concept of immortality." (Again, sound familiar?)

Not saying there might have been a man (not a god) called Jesus who preached wise words, but if you look at the Bible most of what's there regarding him can be traced to other religions which pre-date his "era".

This user would like to thank Medea Fleecestealer for this useful post:

The Guardian reports BO spokesman Ken Lewis saying Trump's allegations "simply false". "As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."

Ben Rhodes, BO's former security advisor, reportedly tweeted
"No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you."

This doesn't rule out wiretapping though. Could have been ordered by the DoJ for instance.

What if the DoJ or some agency (NSA for instance) were surveilling the Russian ambassador and noticed the significant number of contacts by the Trump campaign and had them wiretapped? Wouldn't be unplausible, wouldn't it?

Many newspapers are reporting that the FBI have requested the Justice Department to deny the wire tapping claims. Justice Department have access to the FISA court decisions and the FBI do not like being accused of illegal actions.

North Korea fires four ballistic missiles into Sea of Japan.
The only US reaction ""The DPRK's provocations only serve to increase the international community's resolve to counter the DPRK's prohibited weapons of mass destruction programs," acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement."

Why is he acting?

Because Trump plans to gut the State Department and many of the top jobs remain vacant after the Obama political appointments were fired.